hint of magic anywhere.”
“There isn’t any, the spell is cast on the whole place I believe. I have seen it done before, but not on this large a scale. You should start thinking of this place like a giant enchanted item. Somewhere there is a core, and it is what is controlling everything, including the flow of magic.”
Bren wanted to argue with her, he wanted to hit her, but one look in Faye’s eyes calmed him. “Sorry,” Bren said sheepishly. Without any magic, the emotions he had held in check had run wild, it was almost as if every feeling was rushing him at once, and Bren was not too fond of that feeling.
Shaking the anger from his mind, Bren thought about what Phena had said. “A giant enchantment,” Bren repeated to himself. It was possible if there was a large enough core, though it would take a gem the size of a house or larger, but considering how much magical energy was outside, Bren dismissed the thought. “Knowing that doesn’t really help,” Bren said after thinking everything through.
“It might not help you get your magic back, but it will at least let you know what is doing it,” Phena replied, shrugging her shoulders. “A little information is better than none. Now, if you’re done yelling at the wall, can we get back to our walk? The sooner we get out of this hell pit, the better.”
“Sure,” Bren said sourly as his emotions began to spike again. He thought about apologizing again, but Phena had already turned and walked away from him.
The voices continued to yell at him, and when his mother’s calling voice no longer got him to react it changed to a much darker voice, one that Bren had not heard in a lifetime—his father’s. It didn’t yell, it spoke calmly, yet with pent up bitterness as it asked him why he had killed him. It was too much for Bren to bear, and he hit his knees crying. He pleaded with the voice to stop, but it wouldn’t, it just kept asking the same question over and over.
Bren felt a soft touch on his arm and looked to see Faye smiling down at him. As soon as she spoke, his father’s voice was lost to his ears, and all he could hear was hers. Bren found his strength again and began walking, though he didn’t let go of Faye. He held onto her like a drowning man to a raft.
They walked for ages, but still there was no sign of an exit. Bren didn’t know how much longer he could take it, but then he looked to Faye who happily walked beside him, and he was sure that he would last at least as long as she stood beside him. Bren wasn’t sure why she had the effect on him, but he was glad that she did.
When the lantern began to burn low, Cass called everyone to a halt, so they could refill it with the monster’s blood. The blood was being used up quickly, but Cass was sure that it would last them for at least three days, though Bren was unsure how his friend could tell time in such a place.
Once the lantern was filled, they all took turns sleeping for a few hours. After everyone was rested, they returned to their journey through the endless darkness.
Chapter 22
The passage of time was impossible to judge as they wandered through the darkness. The only thing Bren could measure it by was how many times he had been allowed to sleep. Over the course of what he believed was three days, they encountered more of the small rat-like creatures, as well as more of the cave crabs; they also encountered a few other monsters, but they were not hard to deal with.
The voices still nagged at his mind, but thanks to Faye, he was able to hold them at bay, but each day they grew more aggressive. Bren had held strong, but his will was starting to waiver more and more each day. It was like a small stream of water eating at the bedrock that was his very soul.
It wasn’t until the end of the third day when they were starting to prepare for camp that Bren felt a change in the air. It felt slightly fresher, cleaner than the air he had been breathing for the past fortnight. “Can you smell that?” Bren asked Cass, who was pouring some of the cave crab blood into